


Beat Him in Every Test

by lybrarie



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Slytherin, death mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-15
Updated: 2020-01-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:22:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22270234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lybrarie/pseuds/lybrarie
Summary: Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy have always fought over who was better at schoolwork. Now they are starting their NEWT courses and they are being forced to work together to get the grades they need, and Rose isn't happy about it.
Relationships: Scorpius Malfoy/Rose Weasley
Comments: 3
Kudos: 44





	Beat Him in Every Test

**Author's Note:**

> this is the first piece I have completed since about 2016, so it might be a little rust but I am very proud of completing it! I hope you enjoy <3

Scorpius Malfoy paraded into the great hall like he owned the place. Spoilt brat. He had a crowd following behind him, mostly girls. It was bad enough that he had to beat her in every aspect of their academics, _and_ quidditch, but he just had to be a popular arsehole too, didn’t he? And _just_ to top it all off, they were in the same house and they shared the same subjects: they had picked the same OWL subjects and now the same NEWTs too – and of course he was going to beat her in every single one. It was exhausting: competing with someone who doesn’t even take any notice of you.

Malfoy had sat down at the table, not far away from Rose, and was loudly talking about what he had gotten up to over the summer: spending a lot of time in France with his extended family. Rose rolled her eyes.

“He’s such an arsehole,” Rose groaned, piling her plate with breakfast foods – definitely one of her favourite things about Hogwarts: cooked breakfast every morning, if that’s what you want of course, and Rose always did.

“Oh, leave off it Rose, can we not have just one year that you don’t spend moaning about Scorpius?” Albus asked, too piling food onto his plate.

“I’ll stop moaning about him when he stops being an arsehole.” Rose sighed, turning back to her cousin. “What subjects do you have today?”

“Herbology, charms and transfiguration. You?”

“Potions, charms and transfiguration,” Rose sighed, “looks like we’re not going to get to be potions partners this year”

“Look like it,” Albus agreed, “wonder who you’ll get”

“I don’t care, as long as it’s not Malfoy.”

“Don’t tempt fate,” Albus chuckled

*

Breakfast was soon over, and Rose trudged down to the dungeons, ready for her first lesson of the new term: potions. There was a new professor this year, Professor Everglade, and Rose was eager to impress them.

She was first into the classroom, as normal, and quickly took her usual place: front and centre. The professor wasn’t even there yet. As Rose began to unpack her books, the classroom began to fill up, but the space next to Rose remained empty. She didn’t think anything of it, and wasn’t offended, she didn’t particularly know anybody who she shared this class with. She secretly hoped that _no one_ would fill the empty space, there’d be nobody to slow her down when brewing began.

And Rose was ecstatic when Professor Everglade began to start the class and nobody had taken the seat. Rose had never been in a potions class with this few people, there must just not be as much demand for the subject this year. Or maybe NEWT level classes are just smaller. Rose didn’t think too much on it. Professor Everglade was already lecturing about the properties of the draught of living death, all of which Rose already knew of course, having already read the textbook from cover to cover, not that that stopped her from writing down everything the professor was saying.

“And of course, stirring once clockwise after stirring anticlockwise seven times helps the potion to-” the professor was interrupted by the classroom doors banging open, revealing a very out of breath Scorpius Malfoy.

“Sorry, Professor!” he said, sauntering into the classroom as if he wasn’t already fifteen minutes late, and not bothering to close the door behind him.

“You’ll be careful to be on time from now on, I hope, Mister…?”

“Malfoy. Scorpius Malfoy.” Malfoy grinned, knowing the name would leave an impression on the Professor. He looked around the room, taking a note of every face. “Where should I sit, Professor?”

“Right here will be fine.” Professor Everglade replied, tapping the empty space on Rose’s desk.

Rose’s head shot up immediately. No. Not Malfoy. Anyone but Malfoy. She was so excited to have a year partner-free, if she couldn’t have Albus as her partner that was. She looked from the professor to Malfoy - who was taking his sweet time in making his way to the front of the classroom – her eyes wide and silently trying to plead with the professor to make him sit somewhere else, anywhere else.

“Now, as I was saying. Stirring clockwise once after stirring anticlockwise seven times helps…”

Rose had stopped paying attention to what Professor Everglade was saying. It didn’t matter, she’d been given a copy of the newly published Potions of the Half Blood Prince for her twelfth birthday, she already knew all the tips for brewing draught of living death off by heart. Instead, she was focusing her attention on the boy sitting beside her. He hadn’t even bothered to get his parchment out yet.

“Mind if I look at your notes?” Malfoy asked, a smirk on his face.

“I certainly do mind, Malfoy. Make your own notes.” Rose snapped quietly, trying to listen to what the professor was saying but being continuously distracted.

“The Wiggenweld Potion is…” Malfoy _finally_ got his books out.

“Who was awoken by…” Malfoy asked for a quill.

“Remember, when the potion is made correctly…” Malfoy leant back in his chair.

Eventually, the lesson came to and end. Rose was eager to pack her bag and get out of the dungeons and away from Malfoy. She had an hour free before charms, she could rewrite and complete her notes on the potion then. Just as Rose turned to leave the desk and rush out of the room, Malfoy stepped in front of her, blocking her pathway.

“You know, Weasley, I got top marks in potions last year. I don’t know why you’re not celebrating our new partnership.” Malfoy said, a mocking tone in his voice.

“I do know, Malfoy. And I came second. I don’t need your help.” Rose glared back at him, before using all of her might to push him out of the way so she could storm out of classroom. No matter what happened this year, she _had_ to do better than him in potions.

Rose spent the majority of her hour free ranting to Albus in the Slytherin common room about Malfoy. She didn’t get any of the work done she had planned. And then again in charms – but only when Flitwick had asked them to take some notes from the Standard Book of Spells: Grade 6, she wasn’t going to have to re-do two lots of notes in one day.

By the time transfiguration came around, Albus had had enough of hearing about how annoying Scorpius Malfoy was, and made sure Rose knew it. Plus, Rose also knew she would never get away with talking about anything other than transfiguration in McGonagall’s class.

“Come on in, students, I want you to stand around the edge of the classroom before you take your seats” McGonagall called from her desk at the front of the room, “I have arranged for you to work in partners this year, based off of you OWL grades.

Rose groaned. _Please mean I’ll be working with someone who got a lower grade. Please mean I’ll be working with someone who got a lower grade_. McGonagall started listing off pairs of names, and people started moving to the front of the classroom, to talk their seats where the professor assigned them.

“Unfortunately, this class has an odd number of students this year, so the final group will have to be a three” McGonagall said, “so please can Rose Weasley, Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy take the back desk”

 _No_. Yet another subject Rose was going to have to spend working with Malfoy. This was not going to be a good year.

“And we meet again, Weasley,” Malfoy sniped, “I notice you have taken the seat _furthest_ away from me, whatever could prompt you to do that?”

“Shut up Malfoy.” Rose hissed, reaching into her bag to get out her belongings.

“Please open your textbooks to chapter one. We will be starting this year off with the bird-conjuring charm.” McGonagall began. “By the end of this term I expect you to all be able to perform this spell perfectly, and non-verbally”

“I thought NEWT classes were supposed to be hard.” Scorpius scoffed, too quiet for McGonagall to be able to hear him.

Rose balled her hand into a fist, which Albus placed a hand over. She knew exactly what he was trying to say to her, _he’s not worth it_. But Rose couldn’t help but be frustrated. Malfoy knew what he was doing: rubbing it in her face that he was better than her.

*

“I just don’t understand why you hate him so much, Rosie.” Albus asked.

They were in the library, where Rose was finally writing up her potions notes that she had missed that morning. Scorpius had taken stake of the Slytherin common room back in their third year, and ever since then Rose had spent almost all of her time not in lessons, eating, or asleep, in the library.

“It’s just so unfair that he is so amazing at _everything._ ” Rose sighed. “Besides, Dad always said to me that he didn’t care what I did: what house I was in, what grades I got, what career I wanted to go into. But when we were standing on the platform at Kings Cross before our first year the one thing Dad said to me about going to Hogwarts was ‘make sure you beat him in every test, Rosie’. That’s _all_ he wanted me to do, and I can’t do it!”

“Rose, you’re not letting Uncle Ron down because you’re not beating Scorpius in your tests. You’re getting top marks for Merlin’s sake!” Albus laughed.

“Not top. Second.”

“Still, he loves you Rosie” Albus said, reaching his hand across and squeezing his cousin’s hand.

“I know” Rose sighed, “I just wish I could really _prove_ myself, you know?”

“No, Rose, what I do know is that you are a perfectionist” Albus laughed again, shaking his head. “You don’t need to prove yourself, you’re the smartest person in our family. You’re stupidly smart and we all know it. Besides, it wouldn’t matter if you weren’t. You are an amazing person and my best friend. We all love you, and those who don’t aren’t worth it”

“Those who care don’t matter, and those who matter don’t care” Rose muttered.

“Exactly!” Albus grinned, squeezing Rose’s hand again before letting go.

“Thank you, Al” Rose smiled.

“Anytime.”

*

As the week passed, it was clear that having to work with Scorpius Malfoy was having a toll on her grades. She wasn’t doing nearly as well as she ought to be at this stage. Her NEWT exams were next year and all she was getting in her homework was Exceeds Expectations. Granted, this was more than Albus and a lot of her classmates were getting, but it wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t Rose Weasley standard. She needed to get Outstanding in all of her NEWTs if she wanted to be a curse breaker. And she _really_ wanted to be a curse breaker.

Obviously, this was all Malfoy’s fault. It was bad enough in previous years, just knowing he was there, doing better than her. But actually having to work with him, and watch him get Outstanding after Outstanding, was even worse. And he barely put any effort in! He was constantly making quips about how easy the work they were being set was. He was handing in his essays days before they were due, barely scraping minimum requirement and still achieving Os in all of them, telling everyone who would listen how little effort he had put into them. It was infuriating.

Then came quidditch trials. Rose had attended them every year since her second year, but she had never made it onto the team. Beaten out every time by Malfoy, of course. And this year, Malfoy had been made Captain of the Slytherin team. The trials were going to be worse with him in charge, but it only made Rose ten times more determined to make it on the team. She had been practising all summer, forcing her family to play game after game – the only person who actually wanted to play every time Rose suggested it was Roxanne, and that was only because she wanted enough experience to get her into the Holyhead Harpies this year, but between the two of them they had managed to badger enough people into playing at least twice a week for the whole of summer.

Rose was determined. She had woken up early and made her way down to the quidditch pitch, her new Nimbus in hand, hours before anyone else should get there. The sun was barely coming up over the horizon and Rose was already warming up, doing laps around the pitch, getting faster and faster each time. Once she felt sufficiently warm, she made her way back to the ground, and charmed the three practice quaffles they kept in the quidditch cupboard to fly along with her. She then continued to fly around the pitch, grabbing at the quaffles and throwing them at the hoops from all over the pitch, and scoring every time.

By the time she made her way back down to the ground, she was no longer alone.

“Impressive, Weasley” Malfoy sneered, lugging the case of quidditch balls out of the cupboard. Rose could tell she had flushed red, but she tried to convince herself it was due to the exercise she had just been doing.

“How long have you been out here?” Rose asked, sending the old quaffles back into the cupboard with a silent flick of her wand.

“Long enough” Scorpius huffed as he dropped the case onto the grass. Rose wasn’t sure what he had meant by what he said, but brushed it off as nothing more than any of the other stupid words out of his mouth, “do me a favour, grab some of the brooms out of the cupboard will you? I doubt everyone will have brought their own brooms”

Rose considered telling him to sod off, do it himself, but he was Captain now, which meant it was his decision whether she got onto the team or not. She _knew_ they had a space for a new chaser on the team: Amelie North had left last year and she was the team’s best chaser. That title probably went to Lily Potter now, who Rose had been practising with over the summer. She _had_ to get on the team this year.

Rose huffed, and walked into the cupboard, pulling out as many broomsticks as she could carry. She dropped them all beside the case, just as Lily came running down to the pitch, dropping her broomstick and engulfing Rose in a hug.

“I’m so glad you’re here!” Lily squealed into Rose’s hair as she hugged her. She pushed Rose away, holding her by the shoulders, “We are in dire need of a new chaser now Amelie’s gone, and you’ve gotten _so_ good over the summer!”

“I doubt Malfoy will see that” Rose replied, rolling her eyes.

“Don’t worry, I’ll convince him” Lily grinned, “besides, I already know we work well together – we just have to show Scorp that once the trial starts”

“’Scorp’?” Rose raised her eyebrow at her cousin’s throwaway use of Malfoy’s nickname, as if it meant nothing.

“Oh, he’s not that bad Rosie” Lily laughed, just as Malfoy called everybody over.

There were a lot of people. Of course, Malfoy being the new captain was always going to bring a huge crowd, wasn’t it? He had a crowd following his every move. Sometimes Rose thought she was the only person in the castle who wasn’t in love with him. Rose rolled her eyes at the cooing fifth years, trying to get his attention, and stood at the side of the crowd, her arms folded around her broomstick.

“Okay, there’s a lot of you here today, so I’m going to need you all to cooperate so that I can get through all of you before dinner tonight” Scorpius laughed, capturing everyone’s attention instantly. Rose rolled here eyes again. “We’re looking for a new chaser, a new keeper and a new beater, so I’m going to get you to split off into your preferred positions: chasers over there” he pointed in one direction, “keepers over there, and beaters over there” he pointed to two other spaces and people started dispersing to their chosen position, “and if you don’t know where you want to play just hang around here and we’ll try you out for all of them.”

Rose wandered slowly off to the left, along with all the other wannabe chasers. There were a lot of them. Rose sighed. She wasn’t the oldest here, but there was no one who had tried out as much as she had, and she wasn’t sure if that gave her an advantage or a disadvantage.

“Okay, chasers” Malfoy called, having moved over to Rose’s group, “we’re going to start off with a simple exercise, I’ll pick three of you to go up and fly around, throwing the quaffle to each other as you do so. If you drop the quaffle, you’re to come down and tag the next person in. Lily and I, your current chasers, will be up there with you, keeping an eye on things – so no cheating!” he chuckled, as did the majority of the group around him, those who weren’t too nervous to do so, and, of course, those who weren’t Rose. “Okay, let me see… you” he pointed to a nervous-looking second year, “you” he pointed to a girl Rose guessed was probably a fourth year, “and… Rose” he pointed directly at her.

Rose was taken back, at first, Malfoy had never used her first name before. Nevertheless, she shook it off and marched down to the pitch with the other trialists, Malfoy and Lily, the latter of which gave her an encouraging grin and a thumbs up.

“You got this, Rosie!” Lily laughed, before pushing off with her feet and launching into the air.

“No favouritism, Lily!” Malfoy called, quickly following his team mate.

Rose shook her head and took a deep breath. Time to focus now. Ignore Malfoy, focus on the quaffle. _You can do this. You deserve this. You_ will _get onto the team this year._ Rose pushed off and soon, too, joined the group in the air.

She wasn’t the last one up, however. The nervous second year was still looking at their broom. Scorpius sighed and flew back down to the ground, the quaffle still in hand. Rose watched as the boy shook his head and dropped his broom, before leaving the pitch and walking back towards the castle. He obviously wasn’t ready for this. Instead, a burly seventh year took his place. He was quick up in the air, almost in sync with Malfoy.

“Okay guys, start flying around and I’ll chuck the quaffle to one of you once you’re at the speed I expect for a game” Malfoy said.

Rose took another deep breath before setting off. Leaning sufficiently far forward on her broom to go the right kind of speed for a quidditch match. At least, she hoped Hogwarts quidditch matches were at the same speed as her family games, they usually lasted the same amount of time. Rose glanced around her, the seventh year was zooming around the pitch, way too fast to actually be able to understand what was going on. He was trying to show off. _You’re not trying out for seeker, idiot_ Rose thought. The fourth year was going perhaps a little slower than Rose was, but looked a lot more confident than Rose felt. Instead, Rose kept her attention on the quaffle, watching where Malfoy was flying only to see when the quaffle left his hands.

Malfoy threw the quaffle at the seventh year, he flew immediately passed it, not even seeing it flying his way. Lily dove down to catch the quaffle whilst Malfoy flew over to the boy, telling him he’d already failed. But Rose didn’t watch him for long, Lily was flying around with the quaffle: this is what they’d practiced over summer. Rose looked around for an empty space, not that it was hard when there were only 5 of them flying around – 6 once the seventh year’s replacement joined them in the air.

“Open!” she called as she flew, a good enough distance away from her cousin: not too close and not too far. She could definitely catch it from here. Lily nodded and threw the quaffle, Rose caught it perfectly. She grinned and continued flying.

The fourth year caught on quick, she too yelled “open!” and Rose threw the ball at her, she didn’t drop it.

The exercise continued, occasionally Malfoy or Lily would try to intervene, catch the quaffle like they were on the other team, but everything was going smoothly for Rose. She watched as the fourth year dropped the quaffle right as it hit her hands, and her replacement didn’t last nearly as long. She watched replacement after replacement, but not once did the quaffle fall out of Rose’s hands. She was doing exactly what she needed to. Before too long, there were no replacements left, Rose had outlasted them all! Malfoy called for them all to fly to the ground.

“Well done!” Malfoy said, though Rose knew it wasn’t directly at her, just everybody who was still by the pitch. “The exercise is over, and I’m going to move onto a trial for the keepers now. Have a rest but don’t leave, I might want you for some more trials later!”

“Well done, Rosie!” Lily squealed as she landed beside her cousin. “I knew you’d do amazing!”

“Thank you, Lils” Rose grinned.

“Come on, I have snacks” Lily motioned to the stalls, and Rose followed her up. The two sat there, talking about anything and everything: they’d always been close. They watched as the keepers went through their first trial: blocking shots from Malfoy himself, it was a lot quicker a trial than the one for the chasers. And then the trial for the beaters: Malfoy flew around with the quaffle, whilst the current beater, Alice Longbottom, would aim bludgers at him, it was the trialists’ job to guard Malfoy, knock the bludgers out of his way. As much as Rose wanted to, though, the bludgers never hit him, no matter how bad the trialists were, a lot of them didn’t even hit the bludgers!

The day went by and Rose was called to more trials with the chasers. One with the keepers, where they had to get the quaffle in the hoops after catching it from Lily, and if they got it in the keeper changed, but if they missed the chaser changed. Rose was the last chaser up and she got through nine keepers, and didn’t fail to get it in the hoops once. Another trial was with the beaters: the chasers in groups of three had to pass the balls around much like the first trial whilst avoiding the bludgers. Rose was tagged in during the middle of the trial, and again remained in the trail until the end.

The final trial was with both the keepers and the beaters. It was essentially a quidditch match, without the snitch and the seeker, where Malfoy would call on you to swap with someone whenever he decided to, without giving reason. Rose was the last chaser to be called up, which frustrated her to no end – she didn’t get a chance to really prove herself! Although she did manage to go through several keepers and two beaters.

By the time the trials were over, it was getting dark.

“Well done today, everyone” Malfoy called once everyone had their feet firmly on the ground, “you’ve certainly given us a lot of choice! I’ll be discussing with my current team, and we’ll post a complete team list on the notice board in the common room Wednesday at 5pm!”

And with that, Rose trudged back up to the castle, desperate for a nap before dinner.

*

All Rose could think about that week was quidditch. She was so desperate to get onto the team. So much so, that by the time Wednesday rolled around, she just couldn’t pay enough attention to a word any of her teachers were saying. And it didn’t help that she had potions last period, either.

Rose had successfully managed to ignore Malfoy the entire class, and get her notes down on everything Professor Everglade had been saying about the Draught of Living Death, which they were to be working on next week – it would be the first time Rose actually had to work with Malfoy in potions, but she was trying not to think about that yet. However, that all changed when the bell went off at 4pm signalling the end of the lesson and Rose rushed out off the classroom and across to the common room.

“Where are you going, Weasley?” Malfoy called, keeping right behind her no matter how fast she walked. Rose didn’t reply, “If you’re going to the common room, you do remember that the quidditch list won’t be up until 5pm, you’ve got another hour. Besides, I haven’t even written it yet.” Rose stopped in her tracks, causing Malfoy to almost walk right into her.

“But you do know who’s on the team, right?” she asked, her brows furrowed.

“Of course,” Malfoy laughed, before overtaking her in their unofficial race to the common room.

Once they got to the common room, Rose took a seat on the sofa in front of the fireplace, specifically the one opposite the notice board. She wanted to see the _moment_ Malfoy put up that list. It was going to be a long hour, and the longest she had sat in the common room for years, but she wasn’t going to budge until she knew who was on the team. She _needed_ to be on it.

Malfoy had taken a seat at one of the tables, specifically the one directly behind the sofa Rose was on – of course he had. Rose pulled a book out of her bag, desperate to distract herself and not think about not getting on the team, but it was no use. She reread the same paragraph on broom care about five times before giving up, she just couldn’t stop turning to Malfoy to check what he was doing, had he written the list up yet?

“Interesting, am I Weasley?” Malfoy raising an eyebrow at her, his quill was hovering over a still empty parchment. Rose ignored him and turned back to the book in her hands, flicking to the next page as if what was on there was magically going to pull her in and keep her occupied for the remainder of the hour. Time was going so slowly.

“You know, I could just _not_ put up the list at 5pm. I think it would be quite interesting if I make you wait for it.” A mischievous grin stretching across his face. There was a blot of ink on the parchment, but still no names.

“If you do that, Malfoy, you’ll have half the Slytherin house at your neck asking where it is” Rose shrugged, trying not to look away from her book. When she eventually did look up, he was finally scribbling something on the page, but all the names Rose could work out were ‘Lily Luna Potter’, ‘Scorpius Malfoy’ and ‘Alice Longbottom’ – all people Rose already knew were on the team.

Eventually it got to 5pm. A somewhat large crowd had gathered in the common room as the hour had passed, which Rose had been oblivious to from her bickering with Malfoy and attempts at focusing on her book, but the moment Malfoy stood up to pin that list on the board she was right behind him.

As Malfoy backed away from the board, leaving room for everybody else to see it. Rose closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She had been pretty confident that she had done well enough to get on the team this year – she’d felt she had done better than she had at any other year’s trials – but now it came to finding out she wasn’t so sure. She took another deep breath before opening her eyes and reading the list:

 **Keeper:** Hunter Sebastian Carmody

Rose recognised his name, he was a fellow sixth year and an annoying one at that too: he was more full of himself that Malfoy was, which Rose didn’t think possible until she’d met Hunter. But he certainly wasn’t as loved throughout the whole of the school as Malfoy was. Rose shook her head, why did she have to compare him to Malfoy? Just because they were both arseholes didn’t mean they were at all similar. She focused her attention back to the notice board.

 **Chaser 1:** Lily Luna Potter  
**Chaser 2:** Scorpius Malfoy

Well she already knew that; Malfoy wasn’t going to change his current team: they’d won the tournament last year. But this was it. If her name was the next one, she was on the team. She took another deep breath and looked down.

 **Chaser 3:** Rose Weasley

Rose let out a sigh of relief, desperate to celebrate but not here, not whilst Malfoy was still looking at her. She ran out of the common room, where she finally let herself smile, and to the library where she had planned to meet Albus and Lily, unable to hide her grin as she approached them.

“I knew you’d do it!” Albus exclaimed as Rose sat down at the table. Lily had obviously told him she’d made it onto the team.

“You were amazing at the trials, there was no way Scorpius couldn’t let you on the team!” Lily grinned, giving her cousin a hug. “In fact, you were the only one he was _sure_ of!”

“What?” Rose asked, confused. Malfoy actually _wanted_ her on the team? Lily must be mistaken.

“Yeah! When we got together on Sunday the first thing he said was: ‘Rose Weasley is obviously our new chaser, I won’t be taking any discussion on this’” Lily explained.

Rose was taken back. She had definitely gotten better at quidditch over summer, but so good that Malfoy wasn’t even looking at any other options? Rose had been watching during the trials, there were a lot of good players.

“See, Rose, I told you Scorpius wasn’t so bad” Albus laughed. Rose shook her head and quickly changed the subject: their charms homework.

Rose spent the hour they had in the library before dinner trying very hard to focus on her charms essay: The Advantages and Disadvantaged of Non-Verbal Spells and the Effects of Different Wand Properties, however she just couldn’t concentrate. Her mind was on quidditch again. She just didn’t understand, Malfoy was always rubbing it in her face that she wasn’t as good as she wanted to be. Surely he wasn’t going to just let her onto the team just like that?

“Rose!” Lily snapped, knowing exactly what her cousin was thinking. “Stop thinking about quidditch! You got onto the team because you’re a great player and you deserve your place. Not because Scorpius has some kind of vendetta for or against you!”

Rose shook her head but didn’t argue. She really needed to get this essay done, it was due in tomorrow and she had barely even written a sentence.

*

The new Slytherin Quidditch Team’s first practice was the following weekend. Malfoy wanted them down on the pitch at 9am, so naturally Rose was there at 7:30, warming herself up with a few laps on her broom and then some practice shots with the quaffle. By 8am she wasn’t the only one.

Hunter Sebastian Carmody was exactly as Rose remembered him. Possibly the richest student Hogwarts had seen in a long time, all because of his family’s business in potions and ingredients – they probably even supplied Hogwarts with their ingredients, as well as all the apothecaries across the entire country. And Hunter loved the attention. He wasn’t quite as popular as Malfoy and that was something Hunter definitely had a problem with. But he tried not to show it. He carried himself well, only wearing the best robes money could buy (Rose definitely didn’t think they were standard Hogwarts issue) and of course the most recent broomstick to go along with it.

“Up early I see, Weasley.” Hunter said as he joined her up in the air. He didn’t have quite the same attitude as Malfoy did when he called her Weasley, Hunter meant it more as an etiquette: he’d made it quite apparent in their first year that you either called him by his full name: Hunter Sebastian, or you simply call him Carmody.

“I could say the same to you.” Rose replied, not taking her eyes away from the hoops as she continued to shoot. She didn’t like Hunter, definitely not as much as she didn’t like Malfoy, but Hunter was just not amicable. Rose couldn’t get on with people who had no regard for others, and Hunter didn’t care about anything that didn’t have some effect on him.

“Let’s practice together.” He was hardly giving her a choice, as the team’s new keeper he took his place in front of the hoops. During the trials, Rose had never once been shooting against him, but she had seen him in action. He was very good, Rose was pretty sure he only ever let one quaffle in, and that one was from Lily. Rose sighed but there was no stopping him, he was already urging Rose to shoot.

Rose took one of the charmed quaffles in her hands, flying back and forth across the pitch and trying to work out the best way to trick Hunter into missing the goal. She thought she managed to get a sufficiently large free space, and she threw the quaffle. But Hunter blocked it. And again, and again. After five attempts, she finally got one around him and scored. They continued for another half an hour, and Rose got about half of her shots in by the end. Eventually the rest of the team showed up and Malfoy called for them to come down.

“I’m glad to see you’re all here early, ready for our first training session,” Malfoy grinned, it was still half 8, “but first we’re going to go into the changing rooms and talk strategies.”

*

That week came the thing Rose was dreading: having to actually work _with_ Malfoy on a potion. Specifically, the draught of living death, which Rose knew even her mother hadn’t been particularly good at.

It wasn’t so much the potion brewing Rose was worried about – it was a difficult potion, yes, but Rose had studied the instructions carefully, _and_ she’d read over and memorised the notes from the Potions of the Half Blood Prince. It was working with Malfoy. She knew he was good at potions, obviously he got an Outstanding in his OWL as well as every assignment they’d been given so far, and she supposed he hadn’t been overly horrendous at quidditch practice at the weekend, but what was he going to be like in potions?

Rose didn’t have much time to think over it that day, as it was a full day. She rushed from ancient runes to charms, then to lunch, and then to transfiguration – where Malfoy was waiting for her.

“Potion brewing day today, Weasley,” Malfoy smirked, he had been in her other lessons that morning, but he thankfully didn’t sit close enough to torment her then, “you ready?”

“Of course I’m ready,” Rose said, sitting down at the end of the table, Albus wasn’t there yet as he had to run to the library after they had had their lunch, “are you?”

“Of course I am, I’m working with you and I _know_ you’ve read the instructions at least a hundred times” Malfoy laughed, just as Albus took his place between the two of them – _just in time_ , Rose thought.

They made it through the lesson without talking to each other again, Albus made sure of it, splitting his time between working with Rose on the bird conjuring charm, and then with Malfoy. But, too soon, the class ended, and it was time for potions.

“Have a good free period, Albus!” Malfoy called as he and Rose turned the dungeon corner on their way to the potions, and Albus on his way to the common room. Rose wanted to ask why Malfoy seemed to actually get on with the rest of her family – first Lily, now this, and Rose had no doubts he was probably friends with Dominique when she was on the Slytherin quidditch team too – but Rose also didn’t want to talk to Malfoy unless she had to.

They took their seats at the front of the classroom, their desk now with a huge cauldron on top of it ready for brewing. Once everyone was in the classroom, Professor Everglade briefly reminded everyone where they could find the ingredients and equipment needed for the potion, and got them on their way.

“You go get the ingredients, Weasley, I’ve got the equipment” Malfoy ordered, already walking towards the back of the classroom. Rose rolled her eyes but didn’t say anything, she really hoped this wasn’t how their entire year of potion brewing together was going to go: with Malfoy trying to boss her around the whole time.

Rose walked to the cupboard and grabbed all the ingredients, ensuring she picked up one extra Sopophorous bean than the normal recipe stated. She took everything back to the cauldron, where Malfoy was waiting for her.

“Take your time, why don’t you.” Malfoy said, raising his eyebrows at her as she struggled not to drop the vial containing the infusion of wormwood.

“I’m sorry Malfoy,” Rose replied sarcastically, “you get the ingredients next time if you think you’re so much faster”

“I will.” Malfoy nodded, standing up and grabbing at the ingredients as Rose placed them on the table. “You start cutting up the Sopophorus beans and collecting the juice, I’ll powder the Asphodel root”

Rose was about to have a go at him, but then she realised he had said _cut_ not _crush_. The Potions of the Half Blood Prince said that _crushing_ the beans was more effective – Rose knew something Malfoy didn’t! She grinned and reached for the silver dagger.

“What are you _doing?”_ Malfoy asked, as he held the root in his hand – unsurprisingly not yet powdered, he was watching Rose’s actions and not even bothering to do his own. “The recipe clearly says to cut them!”

“I know it does, but haven’t you read Potions of the Half Blood Prince?” Rose grinned, she knew she was going to beat Malfoy at this one, “ _that_ clearly states that crushing them is more effective. _And_ that you should use thirteen beans, instead of twelve. Now if you don’t mind, I think you should powder that root before you start criticising me again – we need it before we need the bean juice.”

Malfoy rolled his eyes, but grabbed the mortar and pestle and started crushing the root anyway. Rose continued readying the ingredients.

“How is it going, over here?” Professor Everglade asked, peering into their cauldron. He raised an eyebrow, looking back up at the two of them. “You haven’t even added the powdered rood of asphodel yet?” He phrased it like a question, but it was obvious they hadn’t.

“No, Professor,” Rose answered innocently, “Malfoy is still powdering it”

“Well, make sure to hurry up, remember this _is_ a timed brewing” Professor Everglade replied, before walking over to the next pair.

“Yes Professor” the two said in unison.

Before long, Malfoy was pouring the powdered root into the cauldron, watching it dissolve as he stirred twice, clockwise. Rose then added the sloth brain and the Sopophorus bean juice and let Malfoy continue stirring, this time anticlockwise.

“That’s the seventh, make sure to stir once clockwise after that” Rose informed.

“What?” Malfoy asked, stopping.

“Don’t stop!” Rose exclaimed, grabbing the stirring spoon from him. “Even if you haven’t read Potions of the Half Blood Prince, Everglade told us to do this in our first lesson! But my bad, you were too busy being late and loud, weren’t you?” It was a rhetorical question, but Malfoy answered anyway.

“For your information, I was talking to McGonagall after breakfast that day. _That’s_ why I was late, and Everglade knew that.”

“So? The stirring thing was said _after_ you came in” Rose continued stirring, and watched as the potion turned a perfect lilac colour, before turning clear as Rose stirred. Malfoy was quiet, oddly quiet. Rose turned to look at him, he had sat back down in his chair and was looking at the floor. “Malfoy?” Rose asked.

“I _have_ read the Potions of the Half Blood Prince” he said, quietly. Rose didn’t see what that had anything to do with him being late that first day.

“Malfoy?” Rose repeated. He was still looking at the ground. Rose took a quick glance at their potion, it looked done and it had been clear for two stirring cycles, so it was probably okay to stop now. She let go and put her hand on Malfoy’s shoulder. This was weird. It was new. She didn’t think she had ever touched Malfoy before, not intentionally anyway; there had probably been bumps in the corridors. But it did make Malfoy look up at her. There was something in his eyes Rose hadn’t seen before, was it sadness?

“What, caring for me, are you now Weasley?” Malfoy laughed, brushing her hand off of her shoulder. Whatever look she had seen in his eyes was gone. He pushed up off of the chair and looked at the potion. “Look, it’s going purple again. What happened to ‘don’t stop!’?” He grabbed the stirring spoon and continued stirring it.

“Remember the one time clockwise!” Rose called, shaking herself out of whatever weird moment she had just shared with Malfoy.

“Yes, yes, I know!” Malfoy shook his head.

“That looks perfect,” Professor Everglade said, peering into the cauldron. Rose hadn’t seen them walk over, she was too busy still looking at Malfoy, trying to work out what had just happened, “ten points each.”

“Your time is up!” the professor continued, standing at the front of the classroom. “Can you all please wash up your equipment and return any unused ingredients to the cupboard. I will bottle up your potions and we can test them on Friday after you have also made the Wiggenweld Potion!”

After the lesson had ended, Rose walked beside Malfoy on their way back to the common room, where Rose had planned to meet Albus before going to the library.

“You know, Weasley,” Malfoy said as they walked through the common room entrance, “we _actually_ make a good team. We’re going to smash our assessments this year”

“Yeah right,” Rose said, rolling her eyes, “we make a good team when you’re not trying to boss me around or yelling at me for supposedly not doing it right”

“Touché” Malfoy nodded, before walking over to the corner where his friends were sitting.

“Was that, _actual communication with Scorpius Malfoy_?” Albus asked, laughing as he approached Rose.

“Unfortunately, yes” Rose said, hoisting her bag further up her shoulder before turning to leave the common room, leading the way to the library.

“How did it go?”

“Surprisingly well. Everglade said it looked perfect.” Rose said, smiling at the memory. “Malfoy did boss me about at the start, but once he realised I actually knew the potion better than him he stopped”

“And I bet you _revelled_ in the fact that you knew it better than him” Albus laughed.

“Well I did, until…”

“Until what?” Albus asked, they had reached the library and were taking a seat at their normal table.

“Well, we were talking about our first day back, and I mentioned how he was late,” Rose explained, “and then he went really quiet. Like weirdly quiet. I don’t think I’ve ever heard Malfoy be that quiet. And then I put my hand on his shoulder and he looked up to-“

“Wait, wait, hold on a sec,” Albus paused, “you actively chose to put your hand on his shoulder?”

“Yes, shut up. Anyway, he looked up to me and he looked… his eyes were…” Rose sighed, “look I don’t know how to explain it, but I guess he looked kinda sad? But like without really showing it”

“Rosie! Are you feeling something other than disdain for Mr Malfoy?”

“Shut up Albus”

*

Two days later they were back in the potions classroom, ready to brew the Wiggenweld Potion.

“This is potion is taught during your first year, so I should hope nobody in here needs any assistance from me. Once you’ve finished let me know and we can test your Draught of Living Death on a leaf.” Professor Everglade said as the classroom filled. “Off you go.”

Wordlessly, Malfoy went off to the cupboard to get the ingredients whilst Rose went to the back of the classroom to get the equipment. They didn’t need much equipment for this potion, there were no ingredients that needed to be prepared with specific equipment, and Malfoy wasn’t back at the table when Rose unloaded her bits so she went to the ingredients cupboard to meet him at the cupboard, turns out there were a fair few more ingredients needed for the draught’s antidote than the draught itself.

“Go back to the table, I’ve got the rest” Rose said, grabbing at some of the vials Malfoy hadn’t yet managed to pick up.

“Cheers” Malfoy said from behind a pile of vials.

Rose made her way back to the table, where Malfoy was busy setting out the ingredients that needed preparing: the boom berries needed to be juiced, the plants needed chopping and mucus needed to be extracted from the sloth brains – an extra step from the first year recipe, Rose noted.

“Do you want to juice the boom berries or chop the plants?” Malfoy asked, so looks like he wasn’t going to try bossing her around this time.

“What, keeping the sloth brain mucus all to yourself?” Rose joked, she didn’t know what had gotten her so comfortable around Malfoy, she never would have tried to joke with him before. Malfoy smiled, but he didn’t laugh.

“I was trying to be a gentleman, Weasley, but be my guest if that’s what you so desire” he replied, holding the brain out in front of him, they were certainly slimy.

“You know what, I think I’ll let you be a gentleman, Malfoy,” Rose chuckled, “just this once.”

Malfoy smiled again, and shook his head, taking the brain back and starting to squeeze the mucus out. Rose turned back to the other ingredients, and started juicing the boom berries. Malfoy was being quiet, he hadn’t made any of his normal quips or spoken about how easy this potion is – which was probably the most confusing, as this was the potion that actually was incredibly easy.

“Malfoy?” Rose asked, not really wanting to break the silence, but finding the lack of digs at her expense somewhat unnerving.

“Yes?” Malfoy asked, pausing mid-squeeze and raising his eyebrow at her. Rose realised she had never initiated conversation with Malfoy before.

“On Wednesday, when we were talking about you being late on our first day, you went really quiet. What happened?” Rose wasn’t sure he was going to answer her.

“I was just thinking about some things, that’s all.” Malfoy snapped. He was guarded, and Rose could tell he had been thinking about something he didn’t want to talk about, probably not with anyone, much less Rose. “It’s not important.”

“Right.” Rose replied, turning back to the ingredients. She continued juicing the boom berries, and then chopped up the moly, dittany, mint and wolfsbane.

“You ready to put everything together?” Malfoy asked. Rose nodded, as she finished chopping the last of the wolfsbane.

The two put everything in the cauldron, in the order they were supposed to, making sure to stir the right amount in the right directions, until the potion went a bright green colour.

“What, no corrections from the Half Blood Prince today?” Malfoy asked, breaking the silence that had settled over the pair. 

“Malfoy, this is a _first year_ potion,” Rose scoffed, though she couldn’t help but smile, “I don’t need help from Severus Snape for that one.”

“Look who’s complain about the level of difficulty now” Malfoy grinned.

Rose felt weird. This kind of banter wasn’t something that had ever happened between the two of them before. Was this Malfoy being _nice_ to her? Rose supposed Malfoy had never been specifically _mean_ to her, but _nice?_ Definitely not. Right? She needed to talk to Albus about this. And Lily.

“So, _what_ happened again?” Lily asked. They were sitting, once again, in the library.

“We were just _talking_. I mean he did snap at me at one point, when I asked about why he was late. But aside from that… No quips or sarcastic comments. Like friends or something.” Rose sighed.

“Well maybe you just need to accept it, Rose. You and Scorpius Malfoy are friends!” Albus laughed, knowing full well Rose would hate it. Rose responded with a death glare.

“We will _never_ be friends” 

*

The next day came another quidditch practice, this time in the afternoon as Gryffindor had booked the pitch for the morning. There was a bit of friendly competition as the pitch changed hands. Like last week, everyone had arrived early, and they managed to watch the Gryffindors practice session for about ten minutes before they were spotted.

“You better not be copying our tactics!” James Potter called, captain of the Gryffindor team.

“Those tactics?” Lily called out to her brother. “Only if we wanted to lose!”

Laughter erupted from both teams.

“Congrats on making the team, Rosie!” James called as the Gryffindors headed back towards the castle.

“Thanks James!” Rose replied, grinning and waving at her cousin as he led his team away.

Malfoy got them up in the air quickly, warming themselves up. He had gotten Lily and Rose to shoot goals with Hunter, as well as flying around avoiding the bludgers from Alice and Eli – the new beater, whilst Aster flew around after the snitch. They kept going for hours, Malfoy occasionally calling them down to discuss different tactics. And, of course, he joined the chasers for some of the practice.

“Rose, can I speak to you?” Malfoy called, as he let the rest of the team trudge tiredly back up to the castle. Rose sighed, but didn’t protest. She was tired, but she _did_ want to the best she could in quidditch. But he’d called her Rose again. It left a weird feeling in her stomach and she couldn’t quite place it.

“I just wanted to apologise,” Malfoy sighed, “I shouldn’t have snapped at you yesterday. You were curious, naturally. I would have been too, if our roles were reversed.”

Rose smiled softly; she didn’t really know what to say.

“Let’s go sit down for a minute” Malfoy nodded towards the changing rooms, and began walking in that direction. Rose had no choice but to follow.

“Look, the thing is,” Malfoy began, “I did not have a good day that first day. I didn’t lie, I _was_ talking to McGonagall, and Everglade did know that. That’s why they didn’t dock me any points when I was late”

“They still berated you for it” Rose remarked.

“Yes, but that’s fair. I _was_ late to their first time teaching in Hogwarts, wasn’t I?” Malfoy replied. He took a deep breath. “But the reason I went so quiet when you asked about it, was because of what I was thinking about. So I didn’t lie the second time you asked, either, I _was_ thinking about it.”

He stopped talking, and looked at Rose – properly. The look was back in his eyes, the sadness. Rose could _feel_ it, like the sadness was emanating out if him and she was absorbing it. It was horrible.

“The reason I was talking to McGonagall after breakfast that morning was… well she wanted to check up on me. Make sure I was okay.”

“Okay?” Rose repeated, confused.

“Yes. After my… my mother.” Malfoy took a deep breath, and Rose could actually see tears forming in his eyes. This was clearly hard for him. “She… she died. Earlier this summer.” Rose gasped. “A blood curse. We knew she had it, the curse was on her whole family, we just didn’t know it would kill _her_.”

“I’m so sorry,” Rose whispered, “I didn’t know.”

“You wouldn’t,” he shook his head, “Dad wanted to keep it quiet. McGonagall knew, of course, Dad had to tell her. She came to the funeral too, I think Mum was a good student, one of the best in the year. Not as good as your mum, of course.” There was a ghost of a smile on his face, an attempt at a joke. Rose put her hand over his, she didn’t know what she was doing really, but she knew she wanted to comfort him somehow.

“I’m really sorry, Scorpius.” Rose said. There is was, his first name. She’d never said it before, not _to_ him anyway. It was almost foreign on her tongue. “I can’t imagine how hard that must be for you.”

“It’s alright. I’m surviving, right? And I guess it means _I_ don’t have the curse” Scorpius tried to smile, but his face failed him. Rose squeezed his hand.

“Still.” She breathed.

Not long later, the two walked back up to the castle, side by side, in silence. Things had changed now. They’d both used each other’s first name, _and_ Scorpius had shared something intimate. Something it didn’t sound like he had spoken to anyone else about – except for McGonagall, but that wasn’t by choice.

After Rose had showered, it was time to go up to the great hall for dinner. The common room was almost empty, but there was still one person sitting in front of the roaring fire: Scorpius. Rose almost left, not thinking she should push him any further. But after talking about something like that, would you not want someone to comfort you? She still wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do in situations like this.

“Hey,” she called, softly, walking up to the sofa Scorpius was sitting on, “are you coming up for dinner?”

“No” Scorpius said, equally as quietly, and shook his head, “I think I just need to be alone for a little bit. I can’t deal with the number of people in the great hall right now.”

“Okay,” Rose sighed, it was fair enough, “um, do you want me to bring you back some food or something?” Scorpius smiled at her but shook his head again.

“I’m alright, thanks. If I get hungry later I’ll just go to the kitchens and they’ll rustle me up something” he answered. Rose smiled back before heading up to the great hall.

Rose walked into the great hall, during all the commotion of dinner. She squeezed onto the bench next to Albus and opposite Lily.

“What happened to you?” Lily asked, Rose realised she wasn’t just late from stopping to talk to Scorpius in the common room, Lily also knew he’d held her back from quidditch practice.

“Uh, Scorpius just wanted to talk about something for our potions, that’s all.” Rose didn’t know why she was lying to them. “And then I went to take a shower after practice, I didn’t realise what the time was”

“You haven’t touched the food yet, Rosie, that’s not like you,” Albus commented, his plate was piled up, “are you alright?”

“Yeah, just exhausted.” Rose smiled, reaching forward and grabbing some food – but it was only for show, she realised she wasn’t hungry at all either: hearing Scorpius’ story had taken a toll on her, too.

“Yeah, Scorp really worked us hard today, didn’t he?” Lily laughed, a twinkle of mischief in her eyes. Rose nodded, but didn’t say anything.

“Hold on a minute!” Albus almost shouted. “You called him Scorpius!”

“Watch it, Potter” Rose replied, but she didn’t have the energy to fight them like she normally would have done. Without taking a bite of her food, she excused herself and headed back down to the common room. Time for an early night, she thought.

*

“Okay, Rosie, what _really_ happened after quidditch practice yesterday?” Albus asked.

They were sat in the library, as usual, and Rose was trying to write out her potions essay on the two potions they had recently brewed. She would much have preferred sitting in silence and focusing on her essay – some part of her wanted to keep her conversation with Scorpius a secret, something that was just between them – but Albus and Lily would not let it go.

“We know something happened, you weren’t yourself yesterday.” Lily said, neither of them had even bothered to open their textbooks, they were both so focused on Rose.

“ _Fine,”_ Rose sighed, she put down her quill and closed her textbook, knowing she wasn’t going to get much work done today, “Scorpius did want to talk about potions, kind of,” she shrugged, “he wanted to talk about what we had spoken about before – about why he was late and why he went quiet when I asked him about him. He told me he was late because he was talking to McGonagall – so he wasn’t lying about that – and he went quiet when I asked because he was thinking about that – so he wasn’t lying about that, either – but then he told me _why_ he was talking to McGonagall.” Rose paused, that part wasn’t really her story to tell, was it? “I can’t tell you why, it’s personal to him and I don’t want to go telling without his permission, but something happened to him over summer and McGonagall wanted to check he was alright. And when I asked him about it I guess I brought up some bad memories. He held me back because he wanted to apologise for snapping at me about it the other day. That’s all”

“But you’re calling him _Scorpius”_ Albus responded, “what kind of conversation was it?”

“I’ve never seen him so vulnerable, Albus” Rose shook her head, “I felt so bad for him, what happened to him should never happen to anyone”

“What happened?”

“I can’t tell you, it’s not for me to tell. I don’t think he’d told any of his friends about it, it seemed like the first time he was opening up about it,” Rose shrugged, “it was clearly hard for him.”

“Wow.” Lily leaned back in her chair, and crossed her arms.

“I know.” Rose sighed again. “But what got me the most was how it affected _me_. It was like I was just absorbing everything he was feeling, and I felt so bad for him. It was horrible”

“That’s called empathy, Rose, you’ve always been like that” Albus smiled kindly.

“I know, but it was so intense”

*

The next couple of weeks were weird. Rose was still getting used to calling Scorpius by his first name, as well as hearing him call her Rose. And there was always something in the air between them when they were together, be it in potions or transfiguration or playing quidditch. Rose couldn’t figure it out. But she liked it, she was beginning to really enjoy working with Scorpius – he was very smart and pointed out things even she didn’t notice. She hated to think that she was looking forward to her potions lessons just so she could work with him, but she was beginning to realise that was exactly why she raced down to the dungeons every time they had a lesson.

And she was spending more time in the common room than ever before. She has arranged to meet Albus there instead of the library, so that they could work on their defence against the dark arts essay together. She even decided to curl up on the common room sofa in front of the fire one evening, instead of her usual corner in the library or in her bed in the dorms. It was like hearing Scorpius’s story made her more comfortable, more able to do whatever she wanted. Like her hatred for Scorpius was holding her back, because now she didn’t have to care who was in the common room when she was in there: she didn’t have to hide from Scorpius is fear of entering some kind of argument with him wherever she was. It was so much more relaxing.

But it was strange at the same time. She might have argued with Scorpius a lot – especially in potions – but it had been fun too, pushing each other to see who knew more, and the jibes had been a bit of fun, some kind of inside joke they never really mentioned. Rose missed that, making fun of each other when they got something wrong. Now, it was sometimes like they were tip-toeing around each other, they didn’t want to hurt the other person. Besides, it was getting kind of difficult not having a go at him whenever he tried to do something wrong in potions.

“Rose,” Scorpius said, one potions lesson when they were in the middle of making a Polyjuice potion, “I can’t take this anymore.”

“Take what?” Rose asked, as she scraped the crushed lacewing flies out of the mortar and into the boiling cauldron.

“I get that we have some kind of spoken agreement to be nice to each other now, but it’s not fun anymore,” Scorpius sighed, “and I don’t mean I want to be mean to you or you to me, I just… well it was more entertaining when we were making fun of each other”

“Oh, thank Merlin.” Rose breathed a sigh of relief. “That was exactly what I was thinking. Now what the hell are you doing with those bicorn horns? You’re meant to crush them into a fine powder, not a paste”

Scorpius laughed, shaking his head, and he put down the pestle and mortar with the bicorn horns crushed inside it. “That’s better” he grinned, waving his wand over the cauldron at the correct time. “And while we’re at it Rose please can you not have conversations with Lily during quidditch practice, we are a seven-person team, not a two-person team.” Now it was Rose’s time to laugh.

“Don’t forget the boomslang skin!” Rose called, her only form of reply. Scorpius grabbed it and dropped it in the cauldron.

“Yeah, this is much better” he grinned, before picking up the mortar with the previously crushed – but not pasted – bicorn horn and tipping it into the cauldron.

“Oh, shut up Scorpius”

*

The rest of the term was wonderful. Rose was getting on with Scorpius but still managing to argue with him about their work, as well as excelling in her academics _and_ quidditch – Slytherin were currently top of the inter-house league. Albus and Lily had stopped making jokes about her new found friendship with Scorpius and everything was back to the same as it was before, but everything was better too.

The rest of the term was fast approaching and everyone was bubbling with excitement about the Yule Ball – the one triwizard tournament tradition Hogwarts decided on reinstating. Rose and Lily had decided to go into Hogsmeade that weekend to find some gowns to wear.

“Do you think anyone’s going to ask you to be their dance partner?” Lily asked as they browsed through the hundreds of dresses hanging up in the shop.

“Who would ask me, Albus?” Rose laughed. “You know as well as I that Albus does _not_ dance. What about you?”

“Somebody already has!” Lily giggled, pulling out an orange dress from the railings and holding in front of her body for Rose to see.

“What! Who? You didn’t tell me!” Rose asked, still searching through the dresses. “That one clashes with your hair, Lils”

“Oh yeah.” Lily hung the dress back up. “It was Lorcan Scamander”

“Lorcan! What did you say?”

“Yes, of course!” Lily was grinning.

“Oooh” Rose teased, before pulling out a stunning lilac dress, “oh! This is gorgeous, what do you think?”

Lily stood back, admiring the dress as Rose held it against her body and played with the skirt. She looked back up at Rose and grinned.

*

Hogwarts was a buzz the day of the ball, nobody could concentrate on their work – not even Rose. Scorpius chided her for it, of course, but he wasn’t exactly paying full attention either. It was the last day of term, and Professor McGonagall had called for a half day so that everyone could prepare for the ball that evening – and then for going home the following day if that is what they has chosen to do. Rose was excited to go home and to spend Christmas at the Burrow with her cousins, but she was more excited for the ball – it wasn’t every day she got to dress up in fancy gowns and pretty makeup.

She couldn’t stop grinning as she pulled her dress back out of her trunk, she truly was in love with it. She ran her hand over the detailing on its intricate bodice, and moved the skirt around to watch the layers move in the air. Nobody had asked her to be their dance partner, but that wasn’t going to stop her: she and Lily always had a dance together at these balls, no matter if they’d been asked to go with someone else or not.

Before long, she was ready and walking up the stairs from the dungeon to the great hall alongside Albus, Lily and Lorcan Scamander – who had walked down from the Hufflepuff common room to meet his date.

The great hall was beautiful, decorated in fairy lights – that being actual fairies fluttering around the hall – and with ice statues dotted around here and there. The hall was already pretty full with students, all chatting and walking around with their drinks and snacks: a table full of finger food had been set up along one wall of the hall.

“Drinks?” Rose suggested, and the group headed down to the table waving to people they knew as they passed.

As they walked, Rose spotted Scorpius sitting at the side of the hall. He looked good, dressed up all smart in his modern dress robes. He’d done something new with his hair too, it was pushed back out of his eyes and it showed more of his face. Rose hated to admit it but he did look quite handsome. She also noticed that he was talking to someone Rose vaguely recognised – Thalia Zabini, wasn’t it? – and there was a pang of something in her stomach. He was gesticulating wildly and laughing, as was Thalia, and Rose didn’t know why that made her feel so weird. Rose didn’t know that Scorpius had asked anyone to be his dance partner, he hadn’t mentioned it.

Scorpius turned and caught Rose’s eye. He waved, and she waved back, but she couldn’t shake the weird feeling she had seeing Scorpius and Thalia together. Instead of thinking about it, Rose turned back to her friends. Albus and Lily were talking about something, and Rose wanted to join in with them but she couldn’t help keep on turning to watch Scorpius.

Then, the music started. It was The Weird Sisters, and Rose was excited to hear them perform. Lily and Lorcan raced onto the dancefloor – though not without Lily’s promise of coming back for a dance with Rose later on – leaving Albus and Rose by the side of the room.

“Do you want me to dance with you, Rose?” Albus asked, watching Rose’s face drop as Lily left.

“What? You?” Rose laughed. “You wouldn’t dance if I paid you.”

“True,” Albus shrugged, also laughing.

As the night continued Rose and Albus stood by the side, chatting as usual, watching as people went on an off the dancefloor, and listening to the music. She was having a good time. Lily and Lorcan had taken a break from dancing, and joined them at for some snacks and more drinks.

“Hello, Rose,” a voice said from Rose’s right. She turned her head to see Scorpius smiling down at her, “enjoying the ball?”

“Yes” Rose replied, and she meant it, although she couldn’t help but think back to the way she felt when she saw Scorpius talking to Thalia the way they were earlier. “I saw you with Thalia earlier, where did she go?”

“Oh, she’s off with her girlfriend now, dancing I expect.” Scorpius shrugged. Rose’s stomach squeezed, she remembered Thalia’s girlfriend now – Nova, one of the girls in Rose’s dorm. “Why, did you have some business with my cousin?”

“Thalia’s your cousin?” Rose asked, now that she knew she didn’t know.

“Yeah, how did you not know that? Her mum is my mum’s sister.” Scorpius went quiet for a second, the mention of his mum still incredibly sore for him, but he shook his head and grinned at Rose again.

“Well, up until recently I wasn’t exactly friends with you, was I? And I don’t think I’ve ever had a conversation with her” Rose laughed, she felt like an idiot but she didn’t want to know the thought of Scorpius talking to another girl made her what, jealous?

“That is true” Scorpius agreed.

“Well, was there any reason _you_ came over here?” Rose asked, raising her eyebrow.

“Well, you know, I thought I had to make the most of our last day – you have a whole two weeks of me not annoying you so I’ve got to make up for that somehow”

“Gee, thanks” Rose rolled her eyes, Scorpius laughed.

“No, I was actually here because I wondered if you would like to dance?” Scorpius asked, holding his hand out waiting to see if Rose would take it.

“Dance?” Rose repeated, shocked.

“That’s what I said, yes”

Rose turned her head to the left, looking at Albus who was grinning at her over a glass of party punch.

“What?” Albus asked, unsure why Rose seemed to be dragging him into this conversation. “Go, I’ll be fine” he laughed, and took another sip. Rose rolled her eyes at her cousin, before turning back to Scorpius.

“Alright” she shrugged, placing her hand in Scorpius’ and letting him lead her to the dancefloor. As they reached the dancefloor and found an open space, Scorpius placed his free hand on Rose’s wait and Rose placed hers on his shoulder. It was weird, standing this close, but it also felt right. Rose never knew she could feel so comfortable in someone else’s arms. His hand was soft and warm on her waist, pulling her closer than she ever thought she would be to Scorpius Malfoy, but still she wanted to be even closer as they swayed to the music.

“I realise I asked you to without actually knowing how to dance” Scorpius laughed.

“You’re atrocious, Scorpius, not like me: an absolutely incredible dancer” Rose replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

“You’re incredible” Scorpius said. There wasn’t any sarcasm in _his_ voice, and Rose was taken back – what did he mean by that?

“Shut up” she said, it was practically a reflex at this point.

They carried on dancing through the night, an odd conversation here and there but nothing forced, they were comfortable in their silence. Rose had had dates to the yule ball before, but they had never felt quite like this. Rose couldn’t explain why it felt different, but it did. Maybe it was because everyone she had been to the ball with before had more or less just been a friend, but Scorpius was… Scorpius.

“Rosie!” Lily squealed, walking up behind Scorpius so Rose could see here – Lorcan was nowhere to be seen, and Rose assumed he had gone back to Albus. “You didn’t tell me you had a date!”

“You know I didn’t,” Rose laughed, shaking her head, “time to dance?”

“You betcha!” Lily grinned. Rose separated herself from Scorpius with an apology and a poor attempt at an explanation, whilst Lily grabbed her hand and pulled her further into the crowded dancefloor.

“So, what going on between you and Scorpius?” Lily asked as she grabbed a hold of her cousin’s hands and started dancing along to rather upbeat music, clearly the mood of the music had decide to change between Rose leaving Scorpius and joining Lily.

“Nothing!” Rose laughed. “He just asked me to dance and I thought why not.”

Lily gave Rose a look she liked to call Lily’s don’t-lie-to-me face. Her smile dropped and she raised an eyebrow, she had even stopped dancing.

“Okay, okay!” Rose sighed; she couldn’t hide anything from Lily. “I guess we’ve been getting closer since he spoke to me about his mother a few months ago and… maybe recently things have been changing? I don’t really know. It’s not like either of us have said anything!”

“You know, after the quidditch game last week – when we absolutely dominated the Ravenclaw team,” Rose shook her head, as if Lily had to remind her, they’d won that game by miles, “well Scorpius spoke to me once you headed back to the castle ahead of us, and he said he was going to ask you to be his date tonight.”

Rose frowned slightly; he’d said that? _And_ Lily had managed to not give Rose any hints about it?

“Well, he didn’t” Rose replied, shrugging it off.

“Yes, but he _did_ ask you to dance tonight. I heard him talking to his cousin earlier, when Lorcan and I went of to dance earlier, she was urging him on!”

“What?” Rose said, still shocked. That didn’t really mean anything, right? And did _everyone_ know Thalia was Scorpius’ cousin apart from her?

“Yes! You know, I’ll let you skip out on our annual dance if you want to go back to him”

Rose turned her head to look back at the boys – Lorcan had indeed gone back to Albus, and now Scorpius was standing with them as well, deep in conversation. Did Rose want to go back to Scorpius? She _had_ enjoyed dancing with him earlier, and even if that hadn’t been talking loads, she had felt comfortable with him – more so than she’d felt with anyone aside from her cousins in a long time. Maybe even ever. Plus, she had really been enjoying her lessons with him recently, she’d always loved all of her subjects but knowing he was going to be there just made them that more entertaining in a non-academic way.

“Go on!” Lily urged, letting go of her hands and pushing her in the direction of the boys at the side of the room. “You know you want to!”

Rose stumbled out of the thick crowd and made her way back to the boys, managing to snag some food on her way.

“That was quick” Albus laughed, Rose nodded as she chewed on her food.

“Yeah, Lily’s being… Lily” Rose shrugged, “Scorpius, could I talk to you for a moment?”

“Sure.” Scorpius nodded, putting down his plate of food and his drink and following Rose out of the great hall.

“Let’s go for a walk” Rose suggested. Scorpius nodded and followed her out.

It was a lot quieter outside the great hall. There were still echoes of music and chatter but it almost instantly faded away. The further they got from the great hall the more it felt like there wasn’t even a ball going on at all – aside from looking at their clothing and the absence of almost any other students around the castle, you wouldn’t even know it was happening.

“You alright, Rose?” Scorpius asked.

“Yeah…” Rose took a deep breath; how did she even begin to talk about this with Scorpius? “So, when I was dancing with Lily, she, uh, she told me something”

“And am I allowed to know what she told you?” Scorpius replied, amused.

“Yeah, I was just getting there.” Rose took another deep breath. “She told me that you were thinking of asking me to be your date tonight?” It was a question, though Rose didn’t doubt Lily was telling the truth. Sometimes Rose thought Lily knew her better than she knew herself.

Scorpius had gone quiet; he was staring down at the floor.

“Scorp?” she asked, softly.

“Uh…” Scorpius gulped. “Yeah. Yeah I did tell her that”

“Oh.” Rose didn’t know what she expected to happen after that. Obviously, Scorpius never went through with it, she was standing here with him but they weren’t at the ball _together_. “Why… Uh why didn’t you?”

“I, um, I didn’t think you’d want to” Scorpius shrugged, he was looking at the floor again. Rose was silent, she didn’t know where she expected this to go. It was almost overwhelming; she’d never been at such a loss for words before.

“I need some fresh air” Rose stated, ignoring Scorpius’ last comment.

“Oh. Okay, I’ll see you back in the hall”

“No!” Rose called, as Scorpius turned back the way they had come. “No, I mean, come with me?”

“Okay” Scorpius nodded, putting his hands in his trouser pockets and following as Rose led the way out of the castle.

The two walking in silence, neither sure what to say, or even if saying anything was a good idea. Before Rose even knew where she was going, they had made their way down to the quidditch pitch.

“I’m not sure flying is the best idea in that dress, Rosie” Scorpius laughed, breaking the silence. Rose smiled up at him.

“What happened between us?” Rose asked, stopping below the stalls and turning to face Scorpius. “After you told me, um, about your mother. Something changed between us and I can’t tell what it is”

“I think you realised I’m not as big of an arsehole as you thought I was, that I do have feelings” Scorpius shrugged, still laughing somewhat. Rose rolled her eyes, but couldn’t help but smile also.

A breeze waved through the trees and Rose shivered, hugging her arms around herself. Silently, Scorpius took off his jacket and rested it over Rose’s shoulders, but he didn’t step away. Rose pulled it tighter and offered Scorpius a smile in way of a thanks, not saying anything.

“It’s the middle of winter, Rosie, if you wanted to come outside you could at least have cast a warmth charm.” Scorpius chuckled. Rose rolled her eyes.

“You’re infuriating.”

“Oh, yeah?” he asked, raising his eyebrow at her. _This_ was what Rose liked most about him, the way he messed around with her. Being soft and emotional was great, and was never something Rose expected out of _Scorpius Malfoy_. But what she liked most was when he was teasing her, and she could tease him right back.

“Utterly, utterly infuriating” Rose wasn’t sure if she was talking about _him_ , or the way she made him feel – why did he have to make her feel like that?

“And what exactly about me is infuriating, may I ask?” Scorpius asked, he knew was he was doing, and Rose knew that too. But she sure as hell wasn’t going to stop him.

“Oh, just about everything.” she shrugged, grinning. “The way you always have to beat me in everything. How you’re so _good_ at everything: at quidditch, at your subjects. And especially potions, don’t get me started on how you refuse to let me take charge, even though I clearly know the potions better than you do! And in quidditch, how bossy you are. Yes Mr. Captain we all know you’re in charge! But most of all, you _always_ talk”

“I didn’t know you felt that way about me” Scorpius replied, smiling. Rose knew none of what she had said had been true, or, it had been all true but it didn’t make her hate him. Quite the opposite, in fact. Neither of them said anything, and continued to smile at each other, standing way closer than normal.

“Rose, I-“

“Scorpius” Rose interjected, reaching her hand up and tracing a finger across his lips, “your mouth. It’s doing that think I don’t like again, making sounds.”

“Is there something you would rather it do?” Scorpius smirked, reaching for Rose’s waist and pulling her even closer, already leaning forward.

“Kiss me"


End file.
